Letter to the editor: Cinnamon Lake -- a quiet and peaceful community

A recent conversation with a new acquaintance started with the statement, "I read that there is a lot of vandalism and other problems for you residents of Cinnamon Lake."

Let me assure you: Cinnamon Lake is a friendly, safe and very quiet community. So I was somewhat startled by the remark, and it made me think this person may not be alone in this erroneous belief.

Cinnamon Lake is a private, gated community centered around a 135-acre lake. We have our own administration, service and road departments, which we fund entirely. It's like a mini city, only better.

Our office administrators know most of us by sight and they are friendly, knowledgeable and professional. Our service director shares the same characteristics and does an excellent job of managing, planning and implementing our programs. But most importantly, it is the residents who make it an excellent place to live.

Some volunteer on our fish and lake management committee, some on the utilities committee and some on the association board; did I mention they are all volunteers?

We have roads that invite residents to walk, bike and stop to chat with friends and neighbors. We have a recreation center for events, two swimming pools, tennis and basketball courts, public areas with public restrooms and residents enjoy wonderful views of our beautiful lake.

So, if you have not been to Cinnamon Lake yet, this weekend would be a good time to visit. You see, it is our semi-annual community garage sale and our gates will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. Travel our tree-lined streets and meet some of our residents. Bring a snack and pull into one of our public areas for a rest. Looking at our lake will clear your mind, bring a little peace to your soul and a smile to your face. You see, it's very quiet and peaceful here.

Feel free to bring a goose home with you.

Jack Bracken

Cinnamon Lake

Don't let labels

influence your decisions

A label can make all the difference sometimes. If I asked 10 people whether an insurance company should be able to refuse coverage for someone who previously had cancer, wouldn't most of them say no?

What about preventative care? Most would say such care should be covered, right?

I saw some survey results recently that surprised me. This survey measured the voting public's approval of health care law. It asked one group of respondents about covering people with pre-existing conditions and preventative care generally without revealing the source. They overwhelmingly approved of such coverage.

The same survey asked a test group the same questions, identifying the source as "Obamacare." This group did not approve of such coverage.

Don't let other people's labels influence your decisions. Do your homework. Find out for yourself what the facts are and make the decision based on your own experience and analysis.

Don Ketner

Ashland

Moratorium needed on fracking

On Aug. 23 in Lucas, the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program's Rhonda Reda attempted to mislead her audience with platitudes about the safety of horizontal hydraulic fracturing. Speaking for 90 minutes through a microphone, she drowned audience objections and skirted questions about the dangers of fracking.

Finally, her colleague and a member of the audience conversed inaudibly for 15 minutes, after which the mayor of Lucas declared that both sides had been heard.

Reda acknowledged the potential for water contamination by recommending that landowners have their wells tested; she did not include the information that the extensive testing costs about $1,000 and should be done several times to establish a baseline.

She did not mention that air, water and soil contamination are not confined to well sites or that fracking turns rural areas into industrial waste zones.

Each frack requires about 7 million gallons of water (about as much as one person will use in an 80-year lifetime) 250,000 gallons of highly toxic chemicals and 550 to 2,500 tanker truck trips; wells can be fracked multiple times.

Toxic drilling waste must be pumped down injection wells or dumped into waste water pits, and Ohio is already the dumping ground for waste from New York and Pennsylvania. Claims of energy independence from shale drilling are undercut by the fact that much of the gas is being sold to China and India.

Assurances of the safety of the technology are disingenuous because in Pennsylvania, 13 percent of fracked wells resulted in contaminated ground water, 33 percent in Dimmock. In Pennsylvania, Wyoming, New York, Texas and Colorado, water-well contamination led to serious health problems and total loss of property values. Even if exorbitant claims of wealth and jobs bear some truth, neither compensates for threats to health.

Regulations are inadequate because the 2005 Energy policy act exempted fracking from accountability under seven EPA laws, including the Clean Air and Water Acts, safe Drinking Water Act, Superfund and Emergency Planning and community Right to Know Act. The best informational source is the Network for Oil and Gas Accountability and protection at neogap.org.

On NPR the same day, Tim Rudell reported that Canadian companies are currently developing a fracking process that requires less water and no toxic chemicals. Neither the gas nor the demand will go away. We deserve a moratorium on fracking until the process can be made safe and our health and property values protected.

Deborah Fleming

Perrysville

Machine message reassures

us that Romney has plan

The Ashland County Republican Party phone bank called and left a message on my answering machine to tell me Mitt Romney has a "detailed plan" for getting Americans back to work and improving the lives of families.

I admire Ashland County citizens of both parties who are volunteering in this election campaign season. That is the true exercise of democracy. Citizen involvement stands in sharp contrast to the attack ads -- so hateful, so distorted and sadly financed in our swing state mostly by out-of-state money.

Back to Romney's "detailed plan" for economic recovery. I do not know what it is. I have not heard any detail through his speeches, and I do listen carefully to what all political candidates say.

His campaign website focuses on lowering "marginal" tax rates so that high earners and corporations can presumably pump their money into the economy. "Trickle-down" really does not work.

In return for favorable tax rates, rich people have no obligation to invest in the economy in ways that promote employment of many people at good wages. How is this a plan for improving the lives of families -- unless he is speaking of rich families?

Romney's website says he favors deregulation, which led to this great recession in the first place -- certain unregulated business enterprises and unscrupulous individuals running amok. Few who cased the recession have paid any price for the damage they did.

Strip away the new regulations and they will run amok again. How is this a plan to improve the economy and the lives of families?

Paul Ryan's record in Congress is quite clear about his desire to cut funding for student loans and Medicare (as just two examples).

Romney remains a mystery to me, with his inconsistent stances over the years; and even now, the lack of detail in his campaign promises and his refusal to show us through tax returns how he personally has benefitted from his own business enterprises and favorable tax rates.

I really do not like to take chances when the issues are so important and the stakes are so high.

Romney, American voters and taxpayers want to hear real details of your economic plan, and we want to see all of your tax returns.